should SE delete characters that were never used

someone created a character with the name i want. it was created long ago but never played. i can never use that name until that person deletes that character. do you think SE should remove characters like that?

Because YOU want the name?
We had discussions of how its unfair that houses are getting removed from someone who hasnt logged in for an amount of time (we have that in place now) - having your character deleted would be even worse. Even if its highly unlikely that a character who has never been played seriously would be re-activated that deletion would (by your reasoning) imply to all characters who hasnt been played for a set amount of time, right? Eh, I dont think I like this idea... may it be because it would be "unfair" for people who cant play for a longer amount of time or just because I wouldnt want to loose some characters on my friends list who probadly would have been gone (silly, I know, but as long as those characters are there I have hope the people might come back one day - dont destroy my silly, little dreams)

For the sake of names, this generally isn't a normal practice. It comes with a number of problems that are on the user level, that's why. The most important one of those being that there is a potential for lasting impressions pertaining to that character name on the given server. This could be on the end of someone pretending to be this person before (very far fetched) or that someone take the name of an individual who had a bad rep. You generally don't want to start on a server that had someone with that exact name renowned as a d-bag, ninja looter, or just an overall bad player. Then there's always the obvious one that said player may join up again some day.

In most cases, this might only occur if servers cannot handle new character creations anymore, so they have to purge character data entirely. FFXI had a period of time that this was a thing, though it was extremely rare for it to even happen despite that. Given that our character names are based on first and last, the potential for it to be a problem is ridiculously small compared to games involving just one name. You can always alter a name that is already taken. Just remember that generally, names you don't come up with yourself (stuff from movies, books, anime, etc) are always going to be a high risk for being unavailable. For that (good) reason alone, devs won't see it as a problem, and instead look at it as more of an inconvenience to the games players.

If someone is under level 10 and hasn't played in over a year, yes I feel they should be deleted to free up that name.

Or even better, just force them to change their name upon attempting to log in (which they likely won't, if they never got to level 10 and haven't played in a year, their more than likely to start a new character)

I think this would be perfectly fair.

Or you can perhaps think of a different name? Something less mainstream?

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Originally Posted by Slappah

Or even better, just force them to change their name upon attempting to log in (which they likely won't, if they never got to level 10 and haven't played in a year, their more than likely to start a new character)

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There are some MMOs that have done that in the past. If you haven't played in a certain amount of time, your name is up for grabs and you're prompted to change it upon login if someone else has snatched it up. If you haven't played in, say, a year, then I think that's fair.

Character deletion, however, I don't agree with.

Let's not do anything about a character who is only 15 days old and have not logged in for over one year.

Great idea.

http://suealarson.files.wordpress.co...-thumbs-up.jpg

On serious note: If a character has only 6 hours of playtime, and have not logged in for well over a year, I don't think anyone's gonna cry if they're deleted.

to summarize what I mean:

Any characters that have less than certain amount of playtime, of say... 40 hours, and have not logged in after a certain period of time, of say... 365 days, they should be deleted, obviously they have no interest in going back into the game.

I have a level 1 character with a name that I am holding. When I got married to my hubby in game I changed my name to match his last name and made a character with my old name in case I want it back in the event that we break up.

There are legitimate reasons someone will have a name on a low level character and have not logged in with that character.

So make it as an alt, make sure you log on to it every few weeks or so, and you're fine.

A year is plenty of time >_>

I don't think SE should delete any characters, but I am perfectly fine with their name being released to be used by someone else.

Here's what I think:
- They should send out warning e-mails to accounts about characters' name(s) being released if they have not been used in a year.
- If the character isn't logged in at after the warning e-mail (say...30 days after it was sent), the character name is released.
- If character is logged into before deadline is hit, their character name is saved.
- If character isn't logged into before deadline, name gets released. They can get a pop-up notification to pick a new name, if they log into the character after said deadline.

I agree, if the character is never played or only has a minimum number of hours on it then it should be up for deletion after so many months of being inactive. Anyone who has hit a certain milestone however should be safe from any deletion at all.

WoW made inactive character names available and gave the inactive character a free name change in case the player ever returned. I think that's a fair policy when you have a multi million sized player base and no surnames available. I don't think it's needed in FFXIV though because the amount of sensible first name / last name combos is more than enough for this size a player base.

Deleting characters to free a name is a clumsy solution though. C'mon.

Wait what? You cannot suppose they will never return to the game. Even if a player was unsubcribed for 3 year, nothing says that person will return someday and continue playing with his character. Or even if he is saving that name for the day he will play and take the name.

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Originally Posted by Breezelyn

Here's what I think:
- They should send out warning e-mails to accounts about characters' name(s) being released if they have not been used in a year.
- If the character isn't logged in at after the warning e-mail (say...30 days after it was sent), the character name is released.
- If character is logged into before deadline is hit, their character name is saved.
- If character isn't logged into before deadline, name gets released. They can get a pop-up notification to pick a new name, if they log into the character after said deadline.

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YOu cannot do tha on a online pay game. Why people will pay a entire subscrition only to log for 1 minute to keep his name? Some poeple just stop for a time, but maybe return someday. It is a waste pay a entire month to go online one minute for keep the name. If you don't have the name, just find another.

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Originally Posted by myahele

Or you can perhaps think of a different name? Something less mainstream?

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This

With 2 names it shouldn't be a problem with just a bit creativity in thinking out a name.

In some cases it wouldn't suprise me if some of those "inactive" characters were place holders.

I know a few people that have done server transfers and set up a level 1 on there old server using there name incase 1 day they choose to return to that server.

And a lot of people who change names to something more fitting to there fantasiad new race or something might create level 1s with there old names to stop people ruining there reps or in case they ever decide to fantasia back to there old race.

Rather than delete the character, they should just do what En Masse Entertainment did for Tera, any character that was inactive for a certain amount of time wasn't deleted, merely had their name taken and got flagged for a name change so that a whole bunch of names people wanted to use were freed up. WoW also has something like this where if someone else's character is inactive for a certain amount of time, you can request a GM to free up their name for your personal use.

I dont like the thought of this at all.. So I couldn't unsubscribe for a couple years and come back to this someday without my character being deleted? you want to save your name, you have to resubscribe like the housing thing?

I mean its too bad if you can't get a name you want, there are lots of names I've tried to get and can't either.. but thats just mmo basics 101, names get nabbed.. But deleting characters due to inactivity is just crossing the line..

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Originally Posted by Khalithar

Rather than delete the character, they should just do what En Masse Entertainment did for Tera, any character that was inactive for a certain amount of time wasn't deleted, merely had their name taken and got flagged for a name change so that a whole bunch of names people wanted to use were freed up. WoW also has something like this where if someone else's character is inactive for a certain amount of time, you can request a GM to free up their name for your personal use.

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While in those MMOs names are limited (example: only 1 Bianca each server), in FF XIV there will be only a limit of names if you use names from popular movies, series, games. At least try to choose a different surname (example: many Biancas with different surnames).

I think it makes sense for the amount of time you have logged to determine how long you have before your name is freed. If you barely have 20 hours of game time and haven't logged in in years, chances are slim you'l ever come back and/or care about your name. If you have a few 60s and/or a couple of hundred hours of game time (these are just random examples...) then your character name should be safe for at least something like 5 years (again, just an example, don't think too hard about it).

Alts on active accounts should be exempt IMO. It might suck to have someone sit on a name for years while they play other characters, but it'd be too easy for them to game the system anyway. "We noticed you haven't played the character, Anime Edgelord, in 365 days. If you do not log in with that character, then their name will reset and freed for another player to use." and then all you'd have to do is log in with that character, log out, and hop back on your main.

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Originally Posted by Reinha

WoW made inactive character names available and gave the inactive character a free name change in case the player ever returned.

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This is honestly their best solution. The main issue I see with deleting characters (whether it's to free up a name or just to free up server space for new players) is seasonal gear. If a seasonal event happens to fall below the level cutoff that would see you deleted for inactivity, then an inactive player wouldn't just lose their low-leveled character. They would also lose any seasonal gear, and most of that cannot be obtained again (barring that you pay for it via the Mogstation, which is a bit unfair).

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Originally Posted by Xlantaa

YOu cannot do tha on a online pay game. Why people will pay a entire subscrition only to log for 1 minute to keep his name? Some poeple just stop for a time, but maybe return someday. It is a waste pay a entire month to go online one minute for keep the name. If you don't have the name, just find another.

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The amount of days can be changed. I was just thinking off the top of my head. Maybe 10 days or so. o.o;

I absolutely agree with this. There are some quality FF names that are taken on all servers that are all lvl 1 and not even touched. That's ridiculous. Send them an email, they won't respond, then delete the name. I have Master Vivi as a main, but checked for the same name on other servers and they haven't been touched since launch. Shouldn't be allowed. They aren't coming back.

The fact that we can have a first and last name, should clear up most of the naming issues people have. Choose a different name...
It really is too bad so sad that you didnt get to that name first, but that does not mean that SE should kill off anyone's character no matter how little or long or it has been played.

Besides, I've never heard of any MMO relinquishing names.

If I weren't going to play and was logged off for over a year someone could have my name I don't really care.

I could always come back as Darkkiritio Uchihara

Is this about your Oshino Shinobu issue again?

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Originally Posted by Vespar

The fact that we can have a first and last name, should clear up most of the naming issues people have. Choose a different name...
It really is too bad so sad that you didnt get to that name first, but that does not mean that SE should kill off anyone's character no matter how little or long or it has been played.

Besides, I've never heard of any MMO relinquishing names.

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Blizzard does it, but only on request. If a character is under level 10 (or around there) and hasn't been logged into for quite some time, Blizzard will force a name change on them and give you the chance to grab the name. WoW doesn't have a first and last name system though, so it makes sense there especially with how many people have played WoW over the years.

It would be nice to free up characters that were barely played or logged into. If someone wanted to keep a name on a server or something get it to like level ten at least. If they did character pruning it would free up server storage space which seems to be an often limiting factor on things.

i agreee with this but i got a diffrent reason. I had an NA account at the start of 2.0, but then i had to quit for awhile. My hubby who tried to be nice got me heavensward, only to realize steam gave me the EU version so he had to buy me the EU realm reborn and i had to start all over. so i cant use my na account :( so i wouldnt mind that char getting deleted cause then i can get my name back. altho i could delete her myself, it would be painful. Maybe one freebie weekend i can log back on and delete her

Usually mmos will never delete a character and, instead, will open up that character's name after a certain amount of time. If the person then happens to log in they'll be prompted to name change.

As for character deletion... most mmo players don't like that idea and even if it were implemented there would be a very forgiving level cutoff. (ie only characters below lvl 15 after a year of inactivity would be deleted.)

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Originally Posted by Breezelyn

Here's what I think:
- They should send out warning e-mails to accounts about characters' name(s) being released if they have not been used in a year.
- If the character isn't logged in at after the warning e-mail (say...30 days after it was sent), the character name is released.
- If character is logged into before deadline is hit, their character name is saved.
- If character isn't logged into before deadline, name gets released. They can get a pop-up notification to pick a new name, if they log into the character after said deadline.

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Terrible ideas imo. They already force people to sub to upkeep the house, now we have to do that for Character too?

If this is a thing then you can never take a break from the game. Gotta log in to upkeep the house, then gotta log in too to keep my character. So no.

I already have a name so no 'baaaaw I want a certain name' from me but I like to point out one thing:
Once too many names are taken ( lot of them by inactive players) people are forced to use shitty names like XxX nofree nameXxX or random numbers just to finally get a free name.

But I would not say lets delete them. If some guy was away for like a year just 'unname him' so if he should ever return he just needs a new name but everything else on his character is intact.

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Originally Posted by OmegaStrongtan

I already have a name so no 'baaaaw I want a certain name' from me but I like to point out one thing:
Once too many names are taken ( lot of them by inactive players) people are forced to use shitty names like XxX nofree nameXxX or random numbers just to finally get a free name.

But I would not say lets delete them. If some guy was away for like a year just 'unname him' so if he should ever return he just needs a new name but everything else on his character is intact.

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Or they could make something original.

They shouldn't delete characters, but they should release those names if the created character was literally just used to 'squat' that name. Any character below level 10 that hasn't been accessed in a long time is just squatting a name. It's no different to greedy players buying second houses just because they can, with no intention of actually using them. Plenty of MMOs have a system in place to release names in such circumstances.

Make a more original name.

I played a game that did this actually (although it wasn't a deletion, they changed names of inactive characters and offered a free name change to them should they ever return).

What it resulted in was a rush similar to the housing demolition. Not as much drama, but what it did ultimately result in was people grabbing like 100 desirable names and then turning around to try and sell them to other players.

Just interested, are those people who suggest taking a break from game and who suggest deleting characters are the same people?

I have three characters on my current server and one of them I do want to delete (has nothing to do with name) but I cannot bring myself to do it unless was able to transfer all the MGP he has earned to one of my other ones. I do think SE could offer a new service option which merges characters, items/gear, gil, MGP, mounts/minions and achievements from two into one. In terms of mounts/minions and achievements it could ignore duplicates and it could also maybe merge classes too where the one with the highest takes precedence so if say primary character A had GSM of level 50 and secondary B had GSM 10 it would remain 50 but if primary A had 10 and secondary B had 50 it would turn A into 50. I think could make SE some decent money from it and it wouldn't be a cheap service to use but I would be willing to pay upwards of 50 GBP to do it myself.